Partible soaking pit cover



y 1957 c. HERMAN 2,792,795

PARTIBLE SOAKING PIT COVER Filed April 50, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet l United States Patent i PARTIBLE SOAKING lE'IT COVER Carl L. Herman, Canonsburg, Pa., assignor to Amsler Morton Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pin, a corporation of Delaware Application April 30, 1953, Serial No. 352,230

9 Claims. (Cl. 110-173) This invention relates generally to soaking pit covers and more particularly to soaking pit covers which are made in sections that can be assembled together as a unit.

Soaking pit covers are constructed to cover the chamber of an upwardly open soaking pit. Carriages mounted on rails located at opposite ends of the soaking pit are provided to travel over a soaking pit cover to lift the same and carry it partially to one side or the other for exposing the chamber to permit the tongs to descend in the soaking pit and extract an ingot or other member being heated in the soaking pit. After the ingot has been removed, the carriage again returns the cover and lowers into position where it seals the top of the soaking pit chamber.

in ordinary installations the cover carriage, which spans the length of the one or more of the soaking pits, is capable .of lifting the cover and transporting it to one side or the other for the purpose of exposing the chamber of the soaking pit for the withdrawal of an ingot therefrom. Frequently the cover or a part thereof is damaged by the handling of equipment or by the handling of ingots when inserting or retracting them from the soaking pit chamber. When a cover is damaged it is desirable to lift the same and remove it from the vicinity of the soaking pit where it may be repaired or relined with ceramic blocks on the underside of the soaking pit cover. The cover carriage is able to lift the whole of the cover and hold it at a limited height to permit it to clear the furnace parts for the purpose of exposing the pit.

In some installations the cover carriages may carry the.

cover to the end of the bay where it can be worked on but the whole of the cover cannot be handled because of inadequate crane facilities.

The cranes that are ordinarily found in mills of this character do not have the capacity to lift the whole of the cover as a unit, and if it did have the capacity to lift the whole of the cover and remove it from the vicinity of the soaking pits for repairs, it is difficult to find any space adequate for repairing the large covers With-in the range of the crane. Since the cranes cannot handle the covers and since there is no adequate space in which to repair such large soaking pit covers, the principal object of this invention is the provision of a partible soaking pit cover which is constructed by use of a main frame of spaced parallel side and end members, the ends of which extend beyond the frame to support the same on suitable pillow blocks not supported on the furnace itself but from the foundation thereof. The spaced parallel end members of the frame have their ends connected to the side members at points spaced inwardly from the supporting ends to complete the rectangular frame.

This rectangularframe is also provided with a depending annular skirt that when lowered in place over the mouth of a soaking pit extends into a sand seal that surrounds the furnace opening and seals the same to the exterior atmosphere. This frame supports two or more parts that form the whole of the cover. These parts are small frames each ofwhich carry its ownceramic roof 2,792,795 Patented May 21, 1957 section and is partible from the other frame sections making up the full cover.

During the time that the furnace is open the fire is reduced to a pilot flame and there is a suflicient flue draft on the furnace chamber so that the gases do not escape from the mouth of the furnace but are drawn through the heat exchangers and to the stack as during the normal operation of the furnace. Nevertheless, in handling the large ingots and equipment sometimes an accident happens wherein something is dropped on a furnace pit cover, putting a hole in same which ordinarily requires the necessity of shutting down the furnace to a pilot flame or closing down the firing of the furnace entirely, while a crane comes to remove a small section of the soaking pit cover with its suspended ceramic roof and replaces the same without removing the whole of the cover from its position on the furnace. When a new cover section has been placed on the soaking pit cover frame it is then bricked in with the other sections and the furnace continues in its operation Without the loss of too much time or without materially cooling off or otherwise losing the heat within the soaking pit.

Another object in this invention is the provision of a novel way of making up and assembling the soaking pit cover so that it may be taken apart in sections and repaired or replaced by similar sections.

Another object in this invention is the provision of a cover which is made in sections that permit the sections to be changed periodically without interfering with the operation of the furnace and without requiring a crane that is ordinarily too big for the normal use in that section of the mill in which the soaking pit is found. If a crane were constructed strong enough to lift the whole of the soaking pit cover and handle the same for the pur pose of refurnishing the ceramic roof sections thereof or for making other repairs thereto, such a crane would not have a similar load throughout that part of the mill. It would involve a considerable waste of money and structure elements in building up a crane of this character when a soaking pit cover may be dismantled in sections, repaired and replaced as disclosed herein.

Another object of this invention is a provision of a soaking pit cover that is made in sections that may be interchanged with one another.

Other objects and advantages appear hereinafter in the following description and claims.

The accompanying drawings show for the purpose of exemplification without limiting the invention or claims thereto, certain practical embodiments illustrating the principals of the invention wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the sectional soaking pit cover.

Fig. 2 is a view taken along the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a large detail section of a view taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a plan View of a bridle for lifting an independent section of said cover.

Fig. 6 is a view in side elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings, the side members 1 and 2 are girders and extend from one side of the soaking pit to the other. The ends 3 of these girders rest upon independent supports for holding the entire soaking pit cover at its proper position closing the mouth of the soaking pit. hers I and 2, and by the end members 4 and 5 which are also in the form of girders and which are permanently secured to the side members 1 and 2 to form a complete rectangular frame. The under sides of the girders 1, 2, 4 and 5 forming a frame have secured thereto the sand seal sealingmembers 6 which are madeinoverlapping The rectangular frame is formed with side mem sections that have depending sealing skirts '7. These sealing members are secured to the under side of the girders as indicated at 8. The sealing members as shown in this application are castings which have their sealing skiits overlapping one another and which are hollow and provide a substantial inner facing surface as indicated in 1'0 in Fig. 3 and against which the ceramic roof is supported and defined within the soaking pit cover.

The soaking pit has three sectional frame 11, 12 and 13. The end sectional frames 11 and 13 are duplicates of one another being merely turned around, however each small sectional frame supports a ceramic roof of substantially the same area. These could be made in two, four or six sections with more of them being equal.

The end frames are made by employing the I beam member 14 along the inner side thereof, the ends of which are secured by the angle brackets 15 and secured by the bolts 16 to the side-rails F. and 2. The opposite side of the frame 11 and 13 formed by the channel members 17 which are secured by the bolts 18 to the end frames 4 and 5, the bolts 18 passing through the spacer plates 20 as indicated in Fig. 1.

The side members 14 and 17 of the frames 11. and 13 are connected by the transverse I beam members 21 and 22 at opposite ends, and the intermediate I beams 23, 24 and 25. These transverse I beams 2 to 25 thus divide the end sections into four equal parts, the end parts being braced by the cross braces 26 and 27 and the intermediate spaces being braced by the diagonal braces 28 and 29. However, each of these brace members do not connect with the beam members 14, but they connect with the double channel member 36, which has the filler blocks 31 therebetween to form a rigid beam and which lies in relation with the beam 14, and is likewise secured to the end members i and 2 by means of the angle plates 15 and the bolts 16. These beams 3 must be heavy as they represent the pick-up beams for the entire cover and to this end are provided with the pick-up lugs 32 adjacent each end thereof.

The center section is provided with the spaced parallel beams 33 and 34 which are bolted to the side beams 1 and 2 by means of the brackets 15 and bolts 16. This part of the cover also has four equal sections, the end sections being braced by the angle members 35 and 36, and the intermediate sections being braced by the diagonal members 37 and 38. The frame section 12 is the same size as the end section when bounded by the lift beam. However, the sections may be constructed so as one or more of them can be wider or narrower but it is preferable to maintain a uniformity in these sections so that they may be interchanged with each other and with other sections in the furnace layout.

Each of the frame members 11, i2 and 13 are provided with four bracket members 4d which are spaced at equal quadrant points from one another for the purpose of receiving the bracket members 41 on the bridle member 42, which is illustrated in Figs. 3, 5 and 6 and comprises the frame member having the side channel members 43 connected by the transverse members 44 and 45. These angle members are secured to the under side of the transverse members 21 and 22 in each of the frames that are shown in Fig. 4.

Each section of this partible cover supports a series of parallel tubes 51. Each tube is supported from each of the transverse frames as indicated by the nuts on the U bolts as shown at 50 in Fig. l. i

The tubes themselves carry the inverted U shaped metal members 54 which comprise a web-like strap having a central reinforcing rib and which has inwardly projecting hooks at the bottom thereof that engage the upper shoulders or the lugs on the support tile members 55. The lugs are provided with outwardly projecting shoulders under which the U shaped metal members engage and the lower ends of these tiles have hooks as indicated in 56 which engage in adjacent slots of ceramic roof tile members 57 to suspend them from the frame. It will be noted that the tile members 57 are provided with offset portions which receive the small ceramic masonry part 58 which closes over the seam between adjacent roof tile members 57 and when cemented in place provides a completely solid roof. These roof tiles are covered by an insulating material which is indicated by as which is known in the market as a Superex block that may be formed to fit over and around the hangers and insulate the entire roof section. Intermediate of the ends of the roof section will be noted that some special L. shaped members 61 are provided. These members may be made in varying thicknesses for the purpose of taking up any variation that may be found in the ceramic blocks 57 to completely fill the frame. Each ,one of these frames carries a row of the blocks 62 intermediate of its ends as indicated in Fig. 3. Again the similar type of L. shaped ceramic piece 62 is formed on the sides of the roof member for the purpose of filling the spaces between the sections of the ceramic roof. These tiles are likewise cemented in place after the sections have been mounted on the rectangular frame, and the three sections then combine to produce a unitary cover structure that is picked up as a unit by the cover carriage.

As shown in Fig. 2 the ends of the frames and the ends of the ceramic members are provided with an L shaped ceramic piece 63 that closes the gap between the roof section and the curbing as shown in Fig. 2. This ceramic 63 has its L shaped member resting on the lower flange of the girders 1 and 2, and its other face is wedged shape as indicated in 64, thus when any one of the sections are raised from their positions in the rectangular frame the pieces as are lifted upwardly and are removed before frame is carried away from the position of the pit so that these block members will not fall into the pit when a section is removed.

It will be noted when the roof member is completely in place and swung from the frame members as indicated at 65 in Fig. 2, the under surface 66 is above the curbed line as indicated at 67, and materially above the sand seal 68 in which the skirts 7 depend. Such clearance is needed for expansion. However, the rectangular frame formed by the members 1, 2, 4 and 5 which have the depending sealing members 6 on the marginal sides thereof form a complete enclosure for this ceramic roof. If at any time one of the sections of this roof is injured and is necessary to remove and repair the same, the cover may be carried to the side of the pit and the cradle as indicated in 42, Fig. 5, is brought over by a crane and attached to the member to be removed which is then unbolted. While it is unbolted the angle irons 60 and 70 are supporting the section from the main frame members 1 and 2 and the angle members '71 support the section along the end members 4 and 5 as shown in Fig. 3. The section is then raised and the ceramic parts broken away and another replacement section is immediately inserted and cemented in place to permit the cover to again close the furnace and keep it in service.

While for clarity of explanation, certain embodiments of this invention have been shown and described, it is to be understood that this invention is capable of many modifications and changes in the construction and arrangement of parts and certain parts and steps may be employed without the conjoint use of other parts and steps and without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention.

It is to be understood that the invention disclosed herein is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of the parts illustrated in accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out i in various ways.

I claim:

1. A partible pit cover comprising a pair of spaced side members, a pair of spaced and members disposed transversely of and having their opposite ends secured to said side members at points adjacent the ends of said side members to form a completed large frame, a plurality of independent smaller frames for insertion in and connection to said large frame, a ceramic roof section suspended from the under side of each of said smaller frames and disposed within said large frame, and bolt and bracket means for detachably securing said independent smaller frames to said large frame to retain each of the suspended ceramic roof sections and form a single roof.

2. The structure of claim 1 which also includes a depending circumferential seal skirt on said large rectangular frame laterally enclosing the roof sections of said independent smaller frames.

3. The structure of claim 1 which also includes lifting brackets on each independent small frame, and bridle means to detachably connect with said lifting brackets to raise each independent frame from said rectangular large frame cover.

4. The structure of claim 1 which also includes rest seats on said members to receive and support said independent small frames While being bolted to the members of said rectangular large frame.

5. The structure of claim 1 which also includes cover carriage pickup means connected to said pit cover at selected positions thereof for picking up the assembled pit cover as a unit.

6. The structure of claim 5 characterized in that said 7. A partible pit cover comprising a pair of spaced side members, a pair of spaced end members disposed transversely of and having their opposite ends secured to said side members at points adjacent the ends of said side members to form a completed large frame, a plurality of independent smaller frames for insertion in and connection to said large frame, a ceramic roof section suspended from the under side of each of said smaller frames and disposed within said large frame, said ceramic roof sections being in spaced relation. with each other and with the members of said large frame, bolt and bracket means for detachably securing said independent smaller frames to said large frame to retain each of the suspended ceramic roof sections in spaced relation with said large frame and with each other, and independent ceramic means inserted in said spaces between said large frame and said roof sections and between said roof sections themselves to close said spaces and form a single roof.

8. The structure of claim 7 characterized in that said independent ceramic means overhang and are supported by the adjacent ceramic roof sections.

9. The structure of claim 8 characterized in that said independent ceramic means adjacent said side members partially overhang said side members and are partially supported thereby.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 779,074 Cowen Jan. 3, 1905 1,355,115 Cook Oct. 5, 1920 1,656,963 Stevens Jan. 24, 1928 2,178,668 Longenecker Nov. 7, 1939 2,402,339 Morgan June 18, 1946 2,550,078 McDonald Apr. 24, 1951 

